Happiness

It can really be a state of mind I've learned.  Josh came home from school yesterday to a clean, warm house and a calm and jovial mother.  He said I was freaking him out but I could tell he was a lot happier and calmer.  I actually had a really nice day, I got the house cleaned from top to bottom, got all the washing done and put away and had dinner well underway.  I did Vietnamese Pork Balls in the slow cooker and some teriyaki chicken on skewers for him as he doesn't like the pork.  I made my fried rice and an Asian salad (with a plain salad for Josh).  The three of us ate at the table, it's usually cluttered with Phill's work bag and his other paraphernalia.  Emily had spent her day making a really clever and well designed board game.  She had come out while I was watching the news and asked if I wanted to see it.  I said "Emily all I want is for you to go to school and until that happens we have nothing to talk about".  She went away and I felt awful and I could hear her crying in her room.  I  have to be strong.  At dinner she said she was going to school today, and I said I would like to see the game.  I was very impressed with it and while I cleared away the dinner things she and Josh played it for a while (she'd even made paper dice!)
Whether she will go or not is any one's guess.  I will wake them as usual at 8am and see where we go from there.
My sister rang yesterday and I told her what was going on and she was such a good sounding board.  When I told her that I was not going to let this affect our family anymore she said things could be a lot worse than her refusal to go to school and that she believes Emily will eventually straighten up and sort out her life and her education.  She is right, Em could be on the streets on drugs etc.  She agreed that our current approach to just get on with our lives is probably the right thing for now.
Phill has an appointment to see one of the houses that we liked today, the agent actually rang him back.  This will be the test to see whether they will accept our application given that they are a member of this dodgy real estate site.  I suspect this site has been set up by greedy rich landlords.  If you want to ring them it costs $5.65 a minute and to have any contact by mail, $14 for a response from them.  How do they get away with this?  Back when I worked in real estate we did tenancy checks the old fashioned way, by ringing former landlords/agents.  Blacklisting, if it even happened, was only for the very worst situations. 
I had a good night's sleep last night, Phill has been keeping me awake with his cursed snoring, I actually spent most of the night before last on the lounge and the night before that sitting on the floor of the bathroom in the motel with a blanket around me.
I've managed to keep the fire going but I'm running out of wood, I need to walk down to IGA and get a number off the notice board to get a load delivered.  Once it's burning well it warms the whole house.  It's so cold and not even Winter yet. 
Just watching a broken father on television whose 15 year old son has gone missing in Melbourne.  My troubled little girl is safe and warm in her bed.  Perspective.